Jan. 07, 2019
Ladies and Gentlemen: As an active investor of individual stocks I would like to submit two comments for your consideration. 1. There needs to be a better effort to assure that all proxy votes are counted. Barron's has reported that this is not always the case. After spending significant hours of studying corporate Annual Reports, Proxy Notices and other documents and submitting my votes, it is disappointing to learn that our system for counting votes is flawed. Let's use modern technology to get this fixed. 2. The determination of the outcome of voting should be based on the positive and negative votes cast only. While it is understandable that some institutions or individuals may choose to not cast votes, those abstentions should not be considered either way. The final outcome should depend on the counts of positive and negative votes by themselves without any assumptions that the abstentions were meant to be in favor or against the proposals. Thank you for your time and consideration. Regards, Bill William P. Flannery [redacted]